


Family

by redredribbons



Category: Venom (Comics)
Genre: Comfort, Family Issues, Fluff, Light Angst, Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-18
Updated: 2018-10-18
Packaged: 2019-08-04 03:47:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,619
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16339232
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/redredribbons/pseuds/redredribbons
Summary: After the birth of their newest child, Eddie and Venom struggle with how to be good parents. Set right after Venom #165, from Mike Costa's 2016 run.





	Family

**Author's Note:**

> For new fans joining us from the movie: during Mike Costa's 2016 Venom run, Venom and Eddie have a symbiote child together. Also in the comics, Eddie is estranged from his father and his mother died giving birth to him.

Eddie was exhausted. His entire body hurt. Venom had healed the worst of the damage from his fight with Mac Gargan, but bruises and soreness remained. Sleep was impossible still, even at this hour. His entire consciousness buzzed. There was Venom’s familiar warmth, of course— and the new presence flickering in a corner of his mind, like a match striking.

 

“Do you feel it, Eddie?” Venom asked. It was draped across his chest like a heavy blanket. A loose mouth formed near Eddie’s head to speak out loud.

 

“The baby? Yeah, I do,” Eddie said. He watched Venom’s mouth melt away, leaving a scattering of jagged fangs in its wake. 

 

“Should be—“ Venom began. Its wobbly mouth collapsed again before it could finish.

 

“Hey,” Eddie said, smoothing his hands along Venom’s darkness. It had been a long time since he’d seen the symbiote this anxious. “I need you to talk to me, okay?”

 

_Should be near it_. The soft, rumbling voice sounded directly into Eddie’s brain. 

 

“We can’t, sweetheart,” Eddie said, “It’s too fragile to come home with us. It’s safer at Alchemax.”

 

_NO_. A tentacle lashed into the air. 

 

Eddie flinched at that booming voice in his skull. “Venom. What’s the problem here? We already talked about this, and I thought we agreed.”

 

_We did, but..._ Venom trailed off. 

 

“But it doesn’t feel right?” Eddie coaxed.

 

_Feels like... abandoning._

 

There was a wave of very specific misery from Venom, one that Eddie hadn’t felt for a long time. 

 

“This isn’t like Carnage,” Eddie said. He couldn’t tell if the resulting stab of guilt was his own or Venom’s. “You didn’t— _we_ didn’t know, back then. We can do better now.”

 

_Do you think so? You’re afraid too, Eddie. But you never want to say it with words. You were angry at me for keeping secrets, so why do you do the same?_

 

Eddie sighed and dragged a hand down his face. “I’m not trying to keep secrets from you, dear. There’s just... some things I don’t like to think about.”

 

_But you do. Since the birth._

 

“You’ve seen every one of my memories by now,” Eddie said. 

 

_Doesn’t mean I understand them_. 

 

“Probably better that you don’t,” Eddie muttered and looked away.

 

Venom reared up off his skin in a black wave. _You’re hiding from me!_

 

_“_ Venom—“

 

_You’re_ lying _to me!_

 

“I’m _not_ lying. I’d never lie to you! I just have no idea what the hell I’m doing, okay? You’ve been constantly telling me how you want to raise this child in my image or whatever, but the reality is that I have no fucking clue how to make any of that work,” Eddie yelled back. There was a tight knot forming in his throat. Many years ago he had wanted kids with Anne. She had wanted to wait—but then she was gone. 

 

He buried his face in the pillow. The ghost of his own estranged father, Carl Brock, hung heavy in his mind, all cold eyes and permanent scowl, watching dispassionately as he wept. 

 

“I don’t know how to be a father,” Eddie whispered. He wished he’d forgotten the sound of his father’s voice, but there it was: bubbling up from the depths of his subconsciousness to question if there was anything he _did_ know how to do. With that same bored tone Carl had always used with him, as if Eddie weren’t even worth the effort of derision. 

 

“You’d be better off without me on this. I don’t know shit about parenting for my _own_ species, much less yours,” Eddie said.

 

A soft tendril rubbed across the nape of this neck. _Carnage wasn’t your fault either, you know._

 

This was the most Venom had ever willingly spoken about Carnage’s birth. Eddie had long since given up asking Venom about Carnage, or anything else involving symbiote reproduction, or family, or whatever passed for childhood among their species. These were deep wounds that might not ever heal. Though curious, Eddie knew better than to press the subject. This time, however, Venom continued.

 

_Had no idea what was happening to me. I felt the spawn, but I was too angry. Too afraid._

 

Eddie flinched, knowing that that was partly his fault. They’d both been so consumed by rage back then, pulling each other deeper into a spiral of shared hate for Peter Parker. Hate that nearly destroyed them both.

 

“We’re doing better this time. We’re both trying,” Eddie said, convincing himself as much as Venom, “And this time it seems like… you know what to do. Somehow.”

 

Don’t _know what to do. Any more than you do!_ Venom flattened itself even further until it nearly oozed off the side of the bed. _Only know what I_ didn’t _do. Realized too late._

 

“When you went back to Klyntar, with Flash?”

 

_Yes. When I reconnected with the hive. Learned what I did wrong. Did so many things wrong._

 

“Because you were unwell,” Eddie chose his words carefully.

 

_Because I never learned the way all the others did._

 

Those words were swimming in fresh, raw sadness. To Eddie, it felt very much like when he started college and saw the other boys with their parents on move-in day. Mothers bravely fighting tears. Fathers embracing their sons, eyes shining with pride. Eddie unpacking his boxes alone. His roommate’s parents had kindly offered to help but he’d rebuffed them— their expressions of pity had been unbearable. 

 

“You didn’t have anyone either…” Eddie whispered. He and Venom had been entwined for so long, had suffered together and triumphed together, seen every part of each other. How could he not have known this?

 

“I’m so sorry,” Eddie choked out. He never knew. He never _asked_. 

 

_I’m not like the rest of my kind. I don’t want the same things. I wanted… I want what we have, Eddie._

 

Venom’s consciousness trembled against his own.

 

_“_ They don’t want to bond…?”

 

_Not like this._

 

Fangs scraped across Eddie’s lips— not a full mouth, just enough for the sharp, gentle kisses that, even after so many years, made his heart race. 

 

“Their loss,” Eddie murmured, sucking on one fang, then the next, “You’re a treasure.”

 

Venom gave a sweet purr and pressed into Eddie’s chest, just enough to drift below the surface of his skin. 

 

_I want our child to feel_ this _way. How I never got to feel. Until you. Us._

 

** * * * **

 

The next night was much the same. Eddie was still sore and achey and the thin cot on hard flooring didn’t help. He’d hadn’t even bothered with the scratchy blanket; Venom was warm and silky and all he needed to ward off the chill from the laboratory’s ventilation system. 

 

“I still can’t believe Liz actually sprang for this,” Eddie said, smiling and shaking his head. 

 

“Would have been easier if you’d have let me negotiate,” Venom said. Its face split into a crescent of saliva-coated fangs. “We wouldn’t have had to listen to her rant about how this is a violation of every known Alchemax security protocol in the books...”

 

“...and probably some that haven’t even been written yet,” Eddie finished with a laugh, “Still. We don’t want to push her _too_ far. And holding the Stegron incident over her head seemed to work well enough.”

 

“Worth it,” Venom said. It turned its face to the climate-controlled canister on the shelf next to them. The miniature shadow inside pressed itself against the glass.

 

“Mmm. You were right, you know,” Eddie said, his gaze following Venom’s to their child, “ _This_ is right.”

 

“Almost.”

 

A long tendril extended from Venom to probe for the control panel. It fumbled with the various buttons and levers there until a hiss sounded in the quiet room. 

 

The glass walls of the canister slid upward, and the little creature inside flung itself free. It landed in the folds of Venom’s body. Venom immediately coiled itself around the child, almost fully reabsorbing it, before settling back onto Eddie’s chest. Eddie wrapped his arms around them and buried his face against Venom. _Yes_ , he thought, _this is right_.

 

He lulled closer and closer to sleep and was nearly out when he felt Venom squirming on top of him. No, not Venom, he realized after a moment. The child pushed itself free of its parent’s protective embrace and wiggled along Eddie’s collarbone. Eddie watched it in awe. He and Venom had _made_ this, somehow. He still didn’t quite get how that worked—maybe he’d ask Venom sometime, when things were more stable. Reverently, he reached a hand to the baby symbiote now making its way up his neck. It hummed and vibrated under his touch, and a black thread curled around his thumb. He tilted his head to brush a soft kiss against it. 

 

“Hi, little guy,” he whispered, “It’s nice to meet you.”

 

The baby settled once more, tucked under Eddie’s chin. His eyes prickled with an unnameable emotion, a surge too big to contain: his heart bursting from his chest to reside instead within the two beautiful beings in his arms. 

 

“To be honest with you I don’t really know what I’m doing here, you know? Guess none of us do,” Eddie murmured. He didn’t know if the baby could understand him yet. “But maybe we can all figure it out together. You, me, your—“ Eddie fished for a suitable term, given Venom’s lack of anything resembling human gender. “—other parent. The love of my life right here. How’s that sound?”

 

Another tiny filament tickled his face— followed moments later by a larger one from Venom, cupping his cheek like hand but infinitely softer.

 

“We’ll figure it out,” Eddie repeated, feeling only the twin suns of his loves’ consciousness. His family, at last. 


End file.
